Is it possible for a program to damage an iMac (Snow Leopard) so bad that it cannot start up again, and need to be repaired?
I am asking about this, because this seems to have occurred two days ago, when I was running a popular game program.
When I closed the program, it froze, and I had to switch off the computer. Afterwards, my iMac could not start again. The screen is first white for few seconds and then goes black with a blinking prompt.
Therefore, I had to get it repaired.
The people who fixed it, told me that some vital files had been damaged and that was the reason, why it could not startup again.
I think this is hard to understand because Apple is advertising about iMacs run UNIX and this is the most advanced and secure operating system.
Note that the program, I was running was not a malicious virus but a well-known popular game.
How can that happen?, how can a program damage the UNIX installation.
I highly doubt the game caused the issue. It was most likely file system corruption or perhaps early signs of failing hardware, ie a bad hard drive. OS X is based off of NeXT which is BSD based Unix. If you installed a game, most likely that game was self contained and it would have to have your admin credentials to modify any of the system level stuff.
iMac internal hard discs are liable to fail mechanically or corrupt at random.
Local Apple repairer said that total disc failure after only 3 years use was common.
Always take a backup and make sure that you keep your all your install CDs safe.
The harddrive was not damaged. In fact it is quite new (< year).
---------- Post updated at 02:40 PM ---------- Previous update was at 02:32 PM ----------
My purpose for posting this thread, was solely to see if someone could verify that it is not possible for a program (when crashing) to damage the UNIX installation.
I am not an UNIX expert myself, but I know that UNIX is regarded as a secure operating system.
My harddisk is quite new, and I have had no sign before or afterwards that there is something wrong with it.
That doesn't mean anything. I and others have had drives that were faulty straight out of the package.
OSX's boot files are quite well protected, a user-mode program wouldn't have the ability to trash any of them without jumping through several hoops and requiring administrator passwords. I think the game crashing was a symptom, rather than the cause. A crash inside a driver could do this, though.